Saito's Dream Of Inception

Before the dream collapses Cobb begins the task of extracting information from Saito’s mind. In the process of breaking into Saito’s safe, the location of the information, Mal appears. At first her conversation with Cobb seems neither friendly nor hostile. During their conversation, she sits in a chair, allowing Cobb to attach a rope which he will use to lower himself into the room with the safe. Cobb tells her to, “Stay there,” but she responds to his command with only a slight smile which further obscures her eventual course of action (Inception). However, once Cobb starts lowering himself down into the window, she disappears. In this way, when Cobb begins to act, she acts in a way that opposes him. It is still too early in the film to comprehend
the role that Mal plays in Cobb’s life, although we can judge that Mal knew Cobb previously and that she does not wish to aid in Cobb’s actions. At this point in the film we are not aware that Mal has actually died and exists only as a projection of Cobb’s subconscious. After viewing the entire film, we can go back and examine these moments of film in detail in order to analyze Mal in a new light.